Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

7

I (learn/’ve been learning) English for five years.

8

The kids (are/have been) playing football since ten o’clock.

Dialogue 4

Niels, Dave and Julie are talking about the last time Niels came over from Denmark to visit.

NIELS:

Do you remember when I came over to visit last year?

DAVE:

Of course I do! You arrived in the evening after coming over on the ferry and driving straight here.

When exactly was it?

NIELS:

I think it was in April, wasn’t it? It was definitely some time in spring.

JULIE:

Yes, you’re right. It was Eli’s birthday while you were here, and that’s on the 9th of April, so it was in the Easter holiday.

NIELS:

And then I went upstairs and slept for a bit to recover from the journey . . .

DAVE:

. . . and while you were asleep Julie phoned up Ronnie and Fifi and invited them round . . .

JULIE:

. . . and then an hour later when Ronnie and Fifi turned up I woke you up, and we stayed up with them till the early hours drinking wine.

DAVE:

And we ended up singing rude songs.

NIELS:

You all did – I was asleep again by the time you all started singing.

JULIE:

Just as well you were – they were very rude songs.

DAVE:

I know – why don’t I ask Ronnie and Fifi round again tonight?

NIELS:

Why not? And this time I’ll try and stay awake!

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Idioms

• for a bitmeans ‘for a short period of time’

• till the early hoursmeans ‘until early in the morning, but while it is still dark’

• just as wellmeans ‘it was a good thing’ or ‘it was lucky’

Language point 68 – more time

expressions

We met a lot of time expressions in Language point 39, using general words such as day, nightand year. We also use months, seasons and festivals to talk about when things happen. Be careful with the different PREPOSITIONS:

in

April

winter

the Christmas holidays

the evening

at

Christmas

the end of April

the weekend

the beginning of( the) winter

(no preposition)

next Christmas

last April

an hour later

this summer

We will look at months, seasons and festivals at the end of this unit.

Exercise 6

Fill in the blanks in Henry’s account of past and future holidays, using the words from the box. You can only use each word once.

_____ April we went _____ holiday to the Caribbean. We often go _____ the end _____ the spring because the

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weather’s just right over there _____ that time of the year.

We arrived _____ the airport and _____ hour later we were _____ our villa in the mountains. In the evening we went _____ and had a Caribbean meal. We had a lovely time _____

the sun, and we’re going to go again _____ summer.

Next year we’re going _____ New Zealand, _____ the Christmas holidays. We’ll have to leave _____ the middle _____ the night to get to the airport, and the trip’ll last _____

twenty-four hours. I’m looking forward _____ seeing my relatives _____ Wellington. We’ll probably stay _____ several weeks – I expect we’ll come back to the UK _____ the end of January.

in

next

in

nearlyat

of

an

on

out

at

in

at

for

to

of

in

at

last

in

to

Language point 69 – a-adjectives

We learnt about STATE VERBS in Language point 45 – go back and look at this again if you need to before reading through this Language point.

In English we also have a small number of ADJECTIVES that describe physical and mental STATES. They all have an a-prefix, and are stressed on the second syllable:

asleep

/ə`slip/

aware

/ə`wεər/

awake

/ə`wεik/

alive

/ə`lɑv/

afraid

/ə`frεid/

alike

/ə`lɑik/

alone

/ə`ləυn/

ashamed

/ə`ʃεimd/

Here’s what they mean:

be asleep

=

be sleeping

be awake

=

not be sleeping

be afraid( of something)

=

fear something; feel fear

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be alone

=

be on your own; not be with

anyone

be aware( of something)

=

know about something; sense

something

be alive

=

be living; not be dead

be alike

=

be similar; look similar;

be the same

be ashamed( of something)

=

feel guilty about something

you’ve done

Here are some examples:

Are you aware of any problems with this car?

I’m alone in the office tomorrow – everyone else is on holiday.

James is afraid of spiders.

Queen Victoria was still alive in 1900.

These two girls are very alike, aren’t they?

– Yes, they’re sisters.

Be careful!Most adjectives can be used before a noun:

 The shirt is blue The blue shirt

but you can’t use these special STATE adjectives before a noun: The cat is asleep

but not ‘the asleep cat’

The girl is afraid

but not ‘an afraid girl’

I feel rather alone

but not ‘an alone person’

Exercise 7

Put the correct a-adjective in each sentence.

1

Leasa’s very quiet upstairs – is she ______ ?

2

Dave won’t go bungee-jumping – he’s ______ of heights.

3

We need water to keep us ______ .

4

Other people disturb me, so I prefer working ______ .

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5

I couldn’t see in the dark, but I was ______ of someone else in the room.

6

This film is so boring, I can’t stay ______!

7

Twins that are exactly ______ are called identical twins.

8

The burglar was _______ of his crimes.

Dialogue 5

Henry is asking Suzie about her plans after university.

HENRY:

What are you planning to do after you finish university, Suzie?

SUZIE:

I’m taking a year out to travel, and when I come back I’m going to look for a job in advertising.

HENRY:

Don’t you think you should sort out a job before you go abroad?

SUZIE:

No – when I’m enjoying myself travelling round the world I don’t want to be thinking about work! I’ll find something easily enough when I get back.